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Formation of the Storage Networking Industry Association (Australia and New Zealand) Ltd Approved by SNIA Board of Directors

18 September, 2003 12:33

<p>Founding members positioned to promote storage networking in region</p><p>Sydney, Australia – September 18, 2003 – The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) has approved the formation of the SNIA (Australia and New Zealand) Ltd. as a regional affiliate to promote storage networking technologies as complete and trusted solutions throughout Australia and New Zealand.</p><p>The new affiliate is now registered and the interim board of SNIA ANZ consisting of EMC, HP, Imation and Markom Marketing, announced the following companies have joined them in becoming Founding Members: Computer Associates Inc, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM Corporation, Infinity I/0, Iomega Pty Ltd, Legato Systems Inc, Network Appliance, Quantum, Sun Microsystems and VERITAS Software.</p><p>The SNIA ANZ has produced charter documents that set a clear future objective for storage networking in Australia and New Zealand. The organisation will develop educational and marketing programs to promote the use of storage networking solutions to IT professionals via the working together of vendors, developers and integrators.</p><p>The SNIA is an international not-for-profit organisation formed in the USA in 1997 and dedicated to advancing the adoption of storage networking technologies through education and solutions for the IT community. A local steering committee has worked for more than a year formulating local plans and managing the formation process.</p><p>The SNIA ANZ will follow the SNIA's by-laws and policies but act autonomously in conducting its activities and electing its own governing committee. Activities will include: recruiting vendor and end user company members, participating in regional industry events, supporting regional press initiatives, creating educational presentations and programs and showcasing technology demonstrations.</p><p>"International expansion has been a major goal of the SNIA this year,” stated Sheila Childs, chair of the Storage Networking Industry Association. “Following the expansion into China last month, the official launch of the SNIA Australia and New Zealand regional affiliate represents an exciting new chapter in our organisation's evolution. The commitment its founding members have shown to the organisation is evidence of the value of storage networking technologies in the overall business process."</p><p>Childs continued: “As an organisation, we are delivering technical standards, particularly via the Storage Management Initiative (SMI), which is focused on making truly open, interoperable storage networks a reality; education for users via our SNW series of conferences, tutorials, forums; the SNIA Technology Centre used for interoperability testing; and industry certification programs for users and vendors.”</p><p>Commenting on behalf of the SNIA ANZ, Andrew Manners, general manager for enterprise storage, HP, said, “We are pleased to accept our formal affiliation from the USA and look forward as an industry to being able to assist local storage users with education and certification built around cooperative, interoperable standards based solutions. Our local research clearly shows us that while storage networking is a growth market, users are not interested in isolated solutions. A primary objective for the SNIA ANZ will be to give consistent messages to users and address their concerns for greater simplicity and flexibility in storage management.”</p><p>The interim board of SNIA ANZ will run the organisation until a full board from the existing membership can be elected in November 2003. It is expected that at this time SNIA ANZ will have 15 voting and 15 non-voting members. Plans are underway for Childs to officiate the launch event at that time.</p><p>Graham Penn, research director, APAC, IDC, said, “IDC congratulates SNIA ANZ onits formation. Australia and New Zealand is now part of the global SNIA network andusers will definitely benefit from the massive investment made in education and standards in storage networking. Our recent research shows there is a big move toward storage systems accessed over a network; while the overall storage market declined in the second quarter of 2003, the networked storage segment grew by a massive 7.5 percent to U.S. $1.78 billion, with particular emphasis on SANs. The SNIA ANZ will no doubt assist users in an accelerated adoption of this technology. It is an industry coming of age.”</p><p>Companies interested in joining the SNIA ANZ should contact Andrew Manners (andrew.manners@hp.com) or Mark Heers (heers_mark@emc.com) for membership information.</p><p>###</p><p>About the SNIAThe Storage Networking Industry Association is a not-for-profit organisation made up of more than 300 companies and individuals worldwide spanning virtually the entire storage industry. SNIA members share a common goal: to set the pace of the industry by ensuring that storage networks become efficient, complete and trusted solutions across the IT community.</p><p>To this end, the SNIA is uniquely committed to delivering standards, education and services that will propel open storage networking solutions into the broader market. For information, contact the SNIA at 650.949.6720 or via e-mail at executivedirector@snia.org, or visit the SNIA Web site at http://www.snia.org.</p><p>About the Storage Management Initiative (SMI)The SNIA Storage Management Initiative is creating and driving to broad adoption, a highly functional and interoperable management interface for multi-vendor storage networking products. By enabling and streamlining the integration of large and diverse multi-vendor storage networks, the initiative is able to expand the overall market for storage networking technology. For further information please visit the website at: http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/SMI.</p><p>Address:Storage Networking Industry Association Australia New Zealand LtdACN: 105 913 335PO Box 259Manly NSW 1655</p><p>Press &amp; Analysts:Alex MurphyMarkom Marketing+61 2 9977 8922alexmurphy@markom.com.au</p>

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